


show me how to lay my sword down (for long enough to let you through)

by 26stars



Series: Fall Prompts 2020 [15]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, Fall Prompts 2020, Gen, Just Playing It Safe, May's POV, May's empathy powers, Not sure if it needs the 'violence' warning bc it's all offscreen, Referenced Nathaniel Malick, Referenced torture/non-consensual surgery, Spoilers through s07e06, Walkthroughs of other cast, referenced character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:14:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27557455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/26stars/pseuds/26stars
Summary: When May gets back to the Zephyr and sees Daisy after Malick's torture, she discovers a new dimension of her powers.For Alice's Fall prompt: 'Maydaisy+monster+scars' and also my femslash bingo square 'loss'Title from Sleeping At Last's "Eight"
Relationships: Melinda May & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Phil Coulson & Melinda May
Series: Fall Prompts 2020 [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1931209
Comments: 12
Kudos: 88
Collections: Women of the MCU





	show me how to lay my sword down (for long enough to let you through)

**Author's Note:**

> Man I was UPSET about this whole arc, but I'm happy to shoehorn in any kindness I can for these two. Alice, not sure if you'll see this, but thank you for the prompt!

The words had felt like a bucket of water thrown in her face.

“Don’t look now, but your emotions are coming back.”

Coulson’s LMD had said it with sarcasm, and it had startled her. In only a few days, May had gotten used to feeling blank, but somehow she hadn’t noticed when that had changed. When real frustration, real resentment, had slid under the door. The two of them had been handcuffed to a table alone in a room when it had happened, so May knew the feelings must have been genuine, not just leeched off of Coulson, willingly or unwillingly. It seemed somewhat appropriate though—if there was one person who knew exactly how to push her buttons, dig at her in a space others might overlook, it was the person she’d known the longest.

Coulson was diving down a ladder to the place where the Chronicoms were coming up when she saw him last, but when an explosion rocked the base a few minutes later, May knew what must have happened.

“Where's Coulson?” Mack and Elena asked as she boarded the quinjet.

May shook her head, brushing off their concern. “He’ll come back. He always does.”

When the quinjet docked later on the Zephyr, Mack was unable to move. Not after what he’d just had to do. Elena stayed with him, and May went down to check the status of the rest of her team. Jemma seemed the same as always, but Deke looked shifty, practically radiating anxiety from his appearance alone.

“Where’s Daisy?” she asked, looking around for her.

Jemma looked pained.

“You haven’t heard?”

Daisy was already in the healing pod when May found her. Feet bare, button-down and jacket gone, and her white undershirt and hands stained with blood. There were blood-soaked bandages around her wrists and neck, and she didn’t seem even close to consciousness.

“What happened?” May asked immediately, her eyes going to Sousa, who was standing nervously to one side, his shirt smudged with red.

“Nathaniel Malick,” he said grimly.

“Torture?” May breathed.

Sousa waved a hand vaguely. “He said he took blood, spinal fluid, some of her glands…his end goal wasn’t torture though—he said he was going to put it in himself…when he came back later, the room was shaking…”

May wanted to throw up.

“Why didn’t she quake him away?” May asked, eyeing Daisy’s bloodied hands. “She could have killed him without even moving.”

Sousa huffed out a breath. “We were shot with some kind of gun that doesn’t look like it’s from this century. Maybe we were drugged too, I don’t know. She hid a piece of glass in her hand though to help me get us out…”

May’s own hands clenched into fists at her sides.

“Did you finish off Malick?” she bit out in Sousa’s direction.

_You better have…_

“No. A rafter fell on him when the room shook, and I just took Daisy and ran. The Zephyr had been monitoring for quakes and was there almost immediately to pick us up.”

May’s gaze had not moved from Daisy’s body yet, but now, she turned away.

“Thank you for bringing her back.”

She walked away, not knowing where she was going. The Zephyr was preparing to jump again—she could distantly hear a countdown. In the loading bay, she sat numbly on a jumpseat and braced herself for it.

The plane jolted, and she let out a breath.

Mack needed some air.

May headed to the cockpit.

~

She didn’t dare go to see Daisy until much later, when the worst of her injuries had been mended and Jemma had paused the pod’s work in order to get some food and water in Daisy’s system. Daisy, now re-dressed in a black shirt and trousers and with shoes on her feet, looked much better than before, but she still had bandages on her neck and wrists.

“Hey,” she said at the sight of May, who hovered in the doorway, reading her from a distance. It looked like Daisy had been given some painkillers—she didn’t appear to be in any physical pain.

With the healing pod’s potential, she might even heal without scars.

Better than how it ended for her mother.

“The team said you were the last one to see Coulson—what did he do?”

May forced herself to move closer, standing a few feet from Daisy.

“He thought he knew where the Chronicoms were being built, or at least stored. We had the explosives ready, so he took them down there while I got out.”

“How many times is he gonna make the sacrifice play,” Daisy grumbled, slowly bringing another spoonful of yogurt to her mouth.

“Too many,” May muttered, reaching for the spoon. “Let me help you.”

“I can do it,” Daisy said, weakly batting her hand away.

“I know you can, but let me help.”

As she took the spoon, their fingers brushed, and May felt Daisy’s frustration and anger come flooding in. Anger at Malick for abusing her like that, anger at the larger picture, frustration at her own limitations with her injuries and the absence of her powers…

“Whoa,” Daisy muttered, drawing back a little. “You’re really pissed.”

May stared at her dumbly for a moment. “What?”

“When we touched just then,” Daisy said, cocking her head. “I’m sure you could read my emotions, but I felt yours too…I think. Either that or you just made me absolutely furious for no reason at all. When did you learn how to do that?”

Awkwardly, May looked down at the spoon and cup in her hands. “I didn’t know I could.”

She offered Daisy another bite of yogurt, but Daisy reached up to pull the spoon from her hands again. Again, the wires crossed, but something new came through from Daisy.

Something softer.

“This is cool,” Daisy said with a weak smile, eating the yogurt but not reaching for more. “I didn’t know you felt so _much_. But wait, when did you start feeling your own emotions again?”

May shook her head. “Coulson pissed me off earlier, and he said I was either getting my emotions back or imitating his…but if you felt something from me then I guess it’s the first.”

“Are you relieved?” Daisy asked, sounding concerned.

May set the yogurt aside, still refusing to meet Daisy’s eyes. “It was simpler before.”

Daisy hummed, not sounding like she believed her. “Well, I know I joked about you being a Zen warrior, but I knew ever since I got shot by Quinn a few years back that you felt plenty, just had it locked down.”

“Don’t remind me about that,” May said, shaking her head. “This feels a little too similar.”

A monster, using a person for his own ends. A chamber like a glass coffin, holding a dying girl in stasis.

“Sorry,” Daisy said, brushing her hand against May’s elbow. The soft feeling came through again, washing over May’s rage and cooling it slightly. “But you know, I have a similar memory of you in that pod too.”

May had already forgotten. Guiltily, she stared at the floor.

Thankfully, Daisy changed the subject.

“I don’t know if I can quake again yet…” Daisy muttered. “I’m afraid to try, as long as we’re airborne.

May shook her head. “Don’t rush it. You can’t rush getting better.”

“Oh yes we can,” Daisy reminded her, gesturing to the pod.

“You know what I mean.” May shook her hand.

Daisy’s hand was still on her elbow, the soft feeling still misting gently over the flames in May’s chest.

“I’ll be okay,” she murmured, and finally May lifted her gaze, meeting the young woman’s eyes.

“I can’t believe what he did. I’ll end him the next time I see him.”

Daisy smirked. “I’ll bring popcorn. But you know that if he really has my powers now, it’s going to have to be me.”

They went quiet for a moment, and Daisy eventually let go of her elbow.

“This is what happened to Jiaying, I think,” she muttered, looking away. “How Whitehall took her Inhuman gift and used it on himself.”

May pictures the vicious scars that had criscrossed Jiaying’s face, hinting at worse carnage on the rest of her, evidence of another monster, a different butcher.

She sort of understood Cal’s rage now.

“This shouldn’t have happened,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

“I’m alive,” Daisy said, meeting May’s eyes again. “We’ll make another Coulson. And then we’ll figure out what’s next together. But in the mean time, I’m glad you’re okay. And glad you seem to be doing better.”

She reached for May’s shoulder, and this time May mirrored the movement, leaning into Daisy’s space and tucking herself into an embrace. The soft feeling washed over her again, and May wasn't sure if the feeling was _love_ , but it was definitely something like it. Something as deep and welcoming as an ocean, sound enough to swallow fire and spread its warmth around. It was a strange feeling, wanting to run towards an emotion for a change, and yet its depth didn't feel intimidating. Instead, it felt like diving into the sea.

Sudden and breathtaking and quiet. A little bit like coming home.


End file.
